The NHL has filed a counter-proposal to the NHL Players' Association offer, upping the salary cap to $42.5 million. The NHL has told NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow that it's a final offer with no flexibility or room to negotiate and must have a response by Wednesday at 11am.

"The New York football Giants marched into Little D and made 'America's Team' their prison bitch....[and next week the G-Men] will push the Packers up and down the frozen tundra like their own private zamboni!" -- Carl from Adult Swim

well, let's see how it plays out. I still like the 3/5 agreement with somewhat looser trigger. Perhaps a 2/6 agreement would get accepted. 24% rollback, 2 years under the players plan, if it doesn't work, 6 years under the owners plan. Overall the CBA wouldn't be that long.

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^7^ is just defending his sport sheeps.. as Alcibiades the exiled Athenian rationalizes in his speech to the enemy Spartans, he wants to take revenge on Athens because he loves it and can't stand to see the state it's in now - Triumph

The following is a letter NHL commissioner Gary Bettman sent to NHLPA Executive Director Bob Goodenow on Tuesday.

Dear Bob:

We attempted to reach out to you with yesterday's offer of a team maximum cap of $42.2MM ($40MM in salary and $2.2MM in benefits) which was not linked to League-wide revenues. As Bill told Ted, "de-linking" a maximum team salary cap from League revenues and total League-wide player compensation has always been problematic for us, especially since we cannot now quantify the damage to the League from the lockout. This presents the risk we will pay out more than we can afford. As you know, if all 30 teams were to spend to the maximum we proposed, and if the damage to our business is as we discussed at our meetings in New York, then the League would continue to lose money.

I know, as do you, that the "deal" we can make will only get worse for the players if we cancel the season - whatever damage we have suffered to date will pale in comparison to the damage from a cancelled season and we will certainly not be able to afford what is presently on the table. Accordingly, I am making one final effort to reach out to make a deal that will let us play this season.

We are increasing our offer of yesterday by increasing the maximum individual team cap to $44.7MM ($42.5MM in salary and $2.2MM in benefits). This offer is not an invitation to begin negotiations - it's too late for that. This is our last effort to make a deal that's fair to the players and one that the Clubs (hopefully) can afford. We have no more flexibility and there is no time for further negotiation.

If this offer is acceptable, please let me know by 11:00 A.M. tomorrow, in advance of my scheduled press conference. Hopefully, the press conference will not be necessary.

Sincerely,

Gary B. Bettman

==

I am assuming this offer still has the soft cap at $34M and then taxes and just changed the total max up $2.5M. It still sucks.

"The New York football Giants marched into Little D and made 'America's Team' their prison bitch....[and next week the G-Men] will push the Packers up and down the frozen tundra like their own private zamboni!" -- Carl from Adult Swim

wild theory, perhaps the NHLPA is trying to wait the league out. That way the 4-6 weakest teams contract, the cap could be set fairly high like at 46-47, and rosters could be expanded enough to where there is really no job losses.

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^7^ is just defending his sport sheeps.. as Alcibiades the exiled Athenian rationalizes in his speech to the enemy Spartans, he wants to take revenge on Athens because he loves it and can't stand to see the state it's in now - Triumph

well, if this offer isn't accepted, then I would say yes, the NHLPA is looking for contraction, only if roster expansion for the remaining teams covers the losses.

This whole mess is tough to figure out, but if this is rejected then you know Goodenow is digging in to eliminate Bettman and his southern cronies just like Gary is trying to break the PA.

Edited by '7', 15 February 2005 - 07:10 PM.

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^7^ is just defending his sport sheeps.. as Alcibiades the exiled Athenian rationalizes in his speech to the enemy Spartans, he wants to take revenge on Athens because he loves it and can't stand to see the state it's in now - Triumph

to save jobs for the NHLPA, all the while eliminating Bettman and his obstructionists.

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^7^ is just defending his sport sheeps.. as Alcibiades the exiled Athenian rationalizes in his speech to the enemy Spartans, he wants to take revenge on Athens because he loves it and can't stand to see the state it's in now - Triumph

Roster expansion? When has that ever been discussed? What are you talking about? Even if rosters did expand, players would want less playing time and less ability to get ice time to prove themselves worthy of a big contract? The NHLPA would NEVER look for contraction unless it had some bizarre Laffer curve type of theory. Considering how bizarre their negotiation strategy has been so far, I guess it's not of the realm of possibility.

Teams cannot just 'contract'. These clubs aren't in bankruptcy yet. The league doesn't have the money to buy them out either.

^7^ is just defending his sport sheeps.. as Alcibiades the exiled Athenian rationalizes in his speech to the enemy Spartans, he wants to take revenge on Athens because he loves it and can't stand to see the state it's in now - Triumph

Roster expansion? When has that ever been discussed? What are you talking about? Even if rosters did expand, players would want less playing time and less ability to get ice time to prove themselves worthy of a big contract? The NHLPA would NEVER look for contraction unless it had some bizarre Laffer curve type of theory. Considering how bizarre their negotiation strategy has been so far, I guess it's not of the realm of possibility.

Teams cannot just 'contract'. These clubs aren't in bankruptcy yet. The league doesn't have the money to buy them out either.

It hasn't been discussed much, but the players absorbed by other teams wouldn't be playing 30 minutes a night. Kelly Buchberger won't be taking away ice time from Keith Tkachuk. But certain players like Legwand and Ryan Malone would be great additions on somebodys 3rd line.

technically it wouldn't be contraction, probably just merging like with the Barons/North Stars. Only the Predators would merge with every other team.

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^7^ is just defending his sport sheeps.. as Alcibiades the exiled Athenian rationalizes in his speech to the enemy Spartans, he wants to take revenge on Athens because he loves it and can't stand to see the state it's in now - Triumph

well if they do play then they have to bend over backwards to squeeze in at least 38 games. To me that's the magic number for legitimacy, but if you have to play hockey on July 12th, so be it.

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^7^ is just defending his sport sheeps.. as Alcibiades the exiled Athenian rationalizes in his speech to the enemy Spartans, he wants to take revenge on Athens because he loves it and can't stand to see the state it's in now - Triumph

Yeah, would hockey in July really be that bad? I don't think a 20 game season will do good for anyone. However, it would give teams whose players didn't go to Europe an advantage because they won't be tired out of their ass by the end.

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"If you're not first, you're last" - Reese Bobby (might as well have been said by Lou Lamoriello)

You can't just do that, ^7^. The Predators have an owner, his name is Craig Leopold, and he bought the rights to a franchise in 1997. The NHL would have to buy his franchise out or face a legal nightmare. If they buy the franchise out, for probably around $75 million, they'd never see that money again. That's why no league will ever be contracting teams unless there is a very serious change in the professional sports landscape. There is absolutely no way that improving the game by an imperceptible margin is worth $75 million to the league.